Competition to TV Guide

[dustintv]

Aside from local newspapers and the national listings offered in Cable Guide magazine(I think that's what it was called), did TV Guide ever have competition ever from other listings magazines at the same level as TV Guide did? Just wondering because in other countries like the UK there seem to be multiple TV listings magazines.

 

[therealjm12]

When I as a kid there was a children's TV Guide. I don't think it had anything to do with TV Guide. I think it only lasted a few issues.

 

[FreddyE1977]

if it was anytime after the mid 1960's I can imagine the activist busybody crowd would have gone
absolutely nuts over the idea of Childrens TV Guide!

 

[azumanga]

I recall Time Inc. publishing a weekly TV magazine in the mid-1980s, which also had regional listings, like TVG. Don;t recall the title, but it only lasted a few issues; I don't think it even had complete national distribution.

 

[Tim L]

There was a regional Guide called TV Today,published in Sandusky, Ohio, with mainly Cleveland and Detroit Listings, though early on, It carried some listings as far east as Buffalo and Erie, Pa. It published from about 1950-55..

 

[MarcB]

There was one for the subscribers of TCI Cablevision of Central Connecticut back in the early 90s. I don't recall the name of it.

 

[CrankyYankee]

The children's version of TV Guide was "TV Junior" or "Junior TV", I never figured out which was correct. It emphasized programs that kids would want to watch.

 

[Tim from Springfield IL]

There was also the "Happiness" regional TV guides that have been the subject of some classic TV listings previously posted on this board (particularly the 1970s Kansas listings). I also remember seeing one of those at a rural motel in east central Missouri in 1990. The listings not only included St. Louis and Columbia/Jefferson City locals (which were received at this motel), but also covering a vast area of Missouri, western and southern Illinois, and even northern Arkansas--including stations from markets including Quincy/Hannibal, Kirksville/Ottumwa's KTVO-3, the Springfields of Missouri and Illinois (Springfield/Decatur/Champaign in the case of IL), Cape Girardeau/Paducah/Harrisburg/Carbondale, Jonesboro, AR's KAIT-8, and even Peoria/Bloomington (although IMO I doubt Peoria-area proper subscribers to "Happiness," if any, would have received this edition in question--I would think by the time one got to that area there would need to be an edition that not only would have included Peoria and Springfield/Decatur/Champaign stations, but also those of the Quad Cities and perhaps Chicago and/or Rockford).

 

[hipman2]

There used to be Tuned In, a San Diego made TV listings guide that lasted from 1980-85. At the time when it began, TV Guide didn't care to list programs for cable channels except I guess HBO. ESPN, CNN, Showtime, and others were being added to cable systems.

 

[harrisburgpatv]

When I was growing up, there was not one, but *two* competitors to TVG.

One was "TV Time and Channel", and the other was "TV Host". TV Host existed for a long time, only closing up shop in the late '90s or so. For Sammons Communications cable in Harrisburg (later Suburban, now Comcast) it had listings for almost all the cable channels with their dial positions (mind you, this is when there were only 40 or so channels).

"TV Time and Channel" was gobbled up by TV Host in 1985, and TV Host in turn was bought out by TV Guide in 1999 or 2000. They discontinued TV Host and turned it into "TV Guide Ultimate Cable", which continued on with 24 hour listings (all grids) even past TV Guide's 2003 revamp.

I am sure TV Host (based out of Harrisburg, where I live) may sound familiar to some of you...I know it went nationwide as a monthly-guide competitor to "The Cable Guide".